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Atheist Fiction?

Posted on: May 4, 2007 - 6:54pm

Arletta

Posts: 118

Joined: 2007-04-27

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Atheist Fiction?

I was wondering if anyone has come across or knows where I can find any fiction books that have atheist themes or undertones? Like normal fiction novels and story lines but the characters or plots somehow involve atheist type themes? I've been trying to find info on how well they they do, but I can't actually find any. Any ideas?

I was wondering if anyone has come across or knows where I can find any fiction books that have atheist themes or undertones? Like normal fiction novels and story lines but the characters or plots somehow involve atheist type themes? I've been trying to find info on how well they they do, but I can't actually find any. Any ideas?

Can't think of any off the top of my head. A friend of mine is currently writing a novel about atheism. I'm sure there are plenty of books which have no religion in them whatsoever.

A friend of mine is currently writing a novel about atheism. I'm sure there are plenty of books which have no religion in them whatsoever.

Thats what I'm not looking for. I'm trying find fiction novels that have some sort of atheist component, not just a lack of a religious component. It's hard to describe I guess. I don't know, it's possible there isn't one yet.

Stephen King has included a few things that make me wonder if he's an atheist. Most recent one I seen was a charchter who's wife died mentioned that he was depressed since his wife was killed by "everyone's favorite kind and merciful god."

Matt Shizzle has been banned from the Rational Response Squad website. This event shall provide an atmosphere more conducive to social growth. - Majority of the mod team

I'm sure there are a hell of a lot of atheistic authors around. I'm in the Writers' Guild, a society for writers here in Lancaster, and most of the people I know there are atheists, there are a few pagans around, very nice open minded people of course pagans. I'm sure most of the literary demographic are atheists, agnostics or lazy believers.

Stephen King has included a few things that make me wonder if he's an atheist. Most recent one I seen was a charchter who's wife died mentioned that he was depressed since his wife was killed by "everyone's favorite kind and merciful god."

Stephen King has included a few things that make me wonder if he's an atheist. Most recent one I seen was a charchter who's wife died mentioned that he was depressed since his wife was killed by "everyone's favorite kind and merciful god."

"The beauty of religious mania is that it has the power to explain everything. Once God (or Satan) is accepted as the first cause of everything which happens in the mortal world, nothing is left to chance...logic can be happily tossed out the window."

Stephen King

I also notice that many of his antagonists are devout christians. The warden in Shawshank Redemption...The crazy stalker fan in Misery, etc.

You might try the "Ishmael" series by Daniel Quinn. Quinn is a bit of a philosopher and fairly popular on the college lecture circuit. He wrote these three fictional books as a trilogy:

- Ishmael

- My Ishmael

- The story of B (My favorite of the three). "B" is the name given to a mysterious philosopher who dares question religion and its power over humanity. The church then tries to murder "B". The name "B" of course, for the scarlet letter given to Blashphemers by the church. They are excellent books and I do recommend them for both an entertaining and enlightening read.

They're written similarly to Ayn Rand's books. While we're on the subject there is Ayn Rand to consider. Most of her works are fictional methods to teach her philosophy.

The story of B (My favorite of the three). "B" is the name given to a mysterious philosopher who dares question religion and its power over humanity. The church then tries to murder "B". The name "B" of course, for the scarlet letter given to Blashphemers by the church. They are excellent books and I do recommend them for both an entertaining and enlightening read.

They're written similarly to Ayn Rand's books. While we're on the subject there is Ayn Rand to consider. Most of her works are fictional methods to teach her philosophy.

While I seem to be jumping up and down the alphabet...there is "V for Vendetta", a graphic novel before it became a film. There are definitely themes running through it that religion tends toward conformity, stifles individuality and is a part of the reason humanity is in a mess. These themes are similar to Orwell's "1984" and Aldous Huxley's "A brave new World".

"In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act."
George Orwell

I was wondering if anyone has come across or knows where I can find any fiction books that have atheist themes or undertones? Like normal fiction novels and story lines but the characters or plots somehow involve atheist type themes? I've been trying to find info on how well they they do, but I can't actually find any. Any ideas?

Chris Bradley who, along with me, is one of three open atheiss on GodTube who post videos, writes. Here's description from him about a story you can read on the website:

Chris Bradley wrote:

Immaculate Conception is a short story (of 4461 words) written in the style of my current novel project, Simon Peter. It is meant to be a teaser for the novel, itself, showing the take I'm using for telling the story of Jesus, St. Peter and the origins of Christianity as being started by the same sorts of people that start cults in modern history: a group of religious fanatics, madmen, charlatans surrounded by a storm of sexual depravity, physical and psychological abuse.

"Immaculate Conception" is a story about the conception and birth of Jesus. The story contains nothing mystical, but offers a purely physical story about how it could happen. I am not saying it did happen this way. The birth of Jesus, even from Biblical sources, is confused. In one place Jesus is born in a house attended by kings, in another place he is born in a stable and attended by shepherds. I'm not sure I believe in the physical reality of Jesus at all. But in "Immaculate Conception", as in Simon Peter, I want to open a discussion about the nature of messiahdom, itself, and dispel the idea that Jesus as a historical person needs to be taken seriously as a social reformer, or rebel against Roman conquest or Jewish corruption. Most messiahs are charlatans, insane, or both. Most people who claim supernatural powers, in my readings, have backgrounds of neglect and abuse. For this story, and Simon Peter, I posit that Jesus came from such a family, and in "Immaculate Conception" I have written about his family as being typical of messiahs, born in pain and madness, leading to charlatanry and madness.

(bolds mine)

I don't know about you, but that makes me REALLY want to read this story.

A friend of mine is currently writing a novel about atheism. I'm sure there are plenty of books which have no religion in them whatsoever.

Thats what I'm not looking for. I'm trying find fiction novels that have some sort of atheist component, not just a lack of a religious component. It's hard to describe I guess. I don't know, it's possible there isn't one yet.

There's a series by R.A. Salvatore in which the main character is an atheist agnostic at the start. The setting of the series is in the Forgotten Realms however, so he does start to believe in the gods that actually do exist there. In all my years of reading fiction, that was as close to a true atheist perspective as I've encountered. Which is not to say there isn't one out there.

Have you read His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman? The first book is The Golden Compass (Northern Lights in the UK) which is being turned into a movie that'll be out later this year (minus the religious elements, sadly). Pullman himself is a self-described atheist/agnostic (depending on the context). Probably the closest I've come to atheist fiction in the wild.

I'm actually looking for examples of such writing myself. I don't know what it would look like, though. It's one thing to be anti-religious (which is great), but other than that and science fiction (like anything that seems "supernatural" being explained by science) what would even make something atheist fiction?

I know there have got to be a lot more "lifestyle atheists" out there than just me. So what are our stories? It's definitely harder because the religious victors of the past have written all the legends and buried as much of our heritage as they could so we don't have that tradition to draw on. Plus the knowledge that something doesn't exist isn't exactly the most powerful idea to create a tradition around in the first place...

Garth Ennis has some good stuff. Even though it's comics, most of them are pretty deep, some are outrageous, but I've never been disappointed by anything he's written.

Sock is a novel by Penn Jillette. It's a murder mystery told from the perspective of a sock monkey. Both the main character and the sock monkey are atheists. This book is great on many different levels. It's a fairly quick read, too.

Hi! I actually just found this thread while looking to promote my new novella, THE GOD KILLER. As the title suggests, it is pure atheist fiction: story of a warrior whose job is to assasinate gods that have outlived their use to humanity. A great read for anyone who, like me, has ever wished they could debate our world's dieties face-to-face, and call them out on their hypocrisies.

Check out the Amazon page if you like: http://www.amazon.com/The-God-Killer-ebook/dp/B006FQL9WG/

I think it will be right up your alley. Thanks, glad I found this community!

Hi! I actually just found this thread while looking to promote my new novella, THE GOD KILLER. As the title suggests, it is pure atheist fiction: story of a warrior whose job is to assasinate gods that have outlived their use to humanity. A great read for anyone who, like me, has ever wished they could debate our world's dieties face-to-face, and call them out on their hypocrisies.

Check out the Amazon page if you like: http://www.amazon.com/The-God-Killer-ebook/dp/B006FQL9WG/

I think it will be right up your alley. Thanks, glad I found this community!

Adam

Welcome aboard. My favorite atheist writer is Harlan Ellison. Have you ever had the chance to read him ?

“It is proof of a base and low mind for one to wish to think with the masses or majority, merely because the majority is the majority. Truth does not change because it is, or is not, believed by a majority of the people.”
― Giordano Bruno

Terry Pratchett is a British satirical fantasy author whose Discworld series has nearly reached 40 odd books. He is an avowed atheist himself and themes of that nature run throughout the series. luckily you don't have to start at the begining so I would recommend Small Gods or Jingo to start. The following is a quote from Jingo.

Vimes shook his head. "That always chews me up," he said. "People killing one another just because their gods have squabbled-"

"Oh, they've got the same god, sir. Apparently it's over a word in their holy book, sir. The Elharibians say it translates as 'god' and the Smalies say it's 'man'."

"How can you mix them up?"

"Well, there's only one tiny dot difference in the script, you see. And some people reckon it's only a bit of fly dirt in any case."

"Centuries of war because a fly crapped in the wrong place?"

"It could have been worse," said Carrot. "If it had been slightly to the left the word would have been 'liquorice'."

This next is from Eric

Any wizard bright enough to survive for five minutes was also bright enough to realise that if there was any power in demonology, then it lay with the demons. Using it for your own purposes would be like trying to beat mice to death with a rattlesnake.

These last few are from Small Gods

umans! They lived in a world where the grass continued to be green and the sun rose very day and flowers regularly turned into fruit, and what impresses them?

Weeping statues, and wine made out of water, a mere quantum-mechanistic-tunnel effect that'd happen anyway if you were prepared to wait zillions of years. As if the turning of sunlight into wine, by means of vines and grapes and time and enzymes wasn't a thousand times more impressive and happened all the time.

He says gods like to see an atheist around. Gives them something to aim at.

Its a popular fact that 90% of the brain is not used and, like most popular facts, it is wrong. Not even the most stupi Creator would go to the trouble of making the human head carry around several pounds of unnecessary grey goo if its only real purpose was, eg, to serve as a delicacy for certain remote tribesmen in unexplored valleys, it is used. One of its functions is to make the miraculous seem ordinary, and turn the unusual into the usual. Otherwise, human beings, forced with the daily wondrousness of everything, would go around wearing a stupid grin, saying "WOW" a lot. Part of the brain exists to stop this happening. It is very efficient, and can make people experience boredom in the middle of marvels.

"You can't trample infidels when you're a tortoise. I mean, all you could do is give them a meaningful look."

The followers of Om had lit their campfire in the crumbled halls of Gilash, just as the Prophet had said, and that counted, even though he'd only said it 5 minutes earlier, when they were looking for the firewood

All brilliant in my opinion. Hope you enjoy if you decide to pick one up

Yay though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil, for I am the bi9ggest mother%$&@#%$ in the valley and I carry a big stick
- Me